Entangled with My Cousin's Fiancé
Chapter 422: It’s as if time has flowed backward

Chapter 422: Chapter 422: It’s as if time has flowed backward

"Are you asking about my plans for the future?" Adam Sterling’s lips curled into a smile, "Or are you asking what my plans for Yolanda are?"

His smile made Cooper Coldson feel provoked, "You know exactly what I’m asking!"

"Indeed." Adam Sterling chuckled lightly, shifted his posture and said, "What does President Coldson think my plans should be?"

Cooper Coldson’s face had turned unsightly. The Adam Sterling in front of him seemed completely different from moments ago. Although he was still smiling, his words were now filled with barbs.

Cooper Coldson vaguely sensed that today’s conversation would not end well, or rather, Adam Sterling already regarded him as an enemy.

Adam Sterling had fallen in love with Yolanda Greenwood.

The thought made him uneasy, as if on pins and needles. When he spoke again, his tone was aggressive, "I know you and Yolanda aren’t married, so, living together in that one-bedroom apartment of Lola Gold’s, don’t you find it inappropriate?"

Without waiting for Adam Sterling to respond, he continued, "I have a three-bedroom place nearby, you both can move there."

"If I’m not mistaken, you probably said the same thing to Yolanda, right?" Adam Sterling retorted, seeing Cooper silent, he laughed again, "Looks like Yolanda has already turned you down, so naturally, I’ll respect her decision."

"You!" Cooper Coldson stood up abruptly, "Adam Sterling, three years ago, my brother thought you were a decent man, which is why he let you pretend to be Yolanda’s husband. But with your current actions, do you live up to his trust?"

Adam Sterling remained calmly seated, looking up at Cooper Coldson with a serene gaze, "President Coldson, in these three years, many things have changed."

Cooper Coldson felt his heart racing, blood rushing to his head. He clenched his fists and confirmed word by word, "So, are you saying you have fallen for Yolanda now?"

But to his surprise, Adam Sterling paused for a moment before saying casually, "To be honest, I don’t know."

"You don’t know?" This answer infuriated Cooper Coldson even more.

Adam Sterling withdrew his gaze and continued, "Actually, before all this, I never thought about marriage, never thought about..."

He got up and walked to the window; his voice became distant, "In my childhood, the memory of marriage was nothing but my parents’ endless arguments, ceaseless. They would argue fiercely and then reconcile, but after a few days, they would argue again."

Cooper Coldson frowned and kept listening.

"Later, when I grew a bit older, all of it finally ended because my father eloped with another woman, taking all the family’s money. During those days when my mother and I relied on each other, although poor and difficult, I surprisingly felt a sense of peace and comfort."

"Later, when I was grown, I saw that man again, my father. But beside him was yet another woman."

At this point, Adam Sterling turned back and smiled at Cooper Coldson, "Isn’t it laughable? When my father eloped back then, he abandoned all his family for that woman—not just me and my mother, but even his own mother and everything he had. But in the end, they didn’t last."

"I don’t understand what you’re trying to say?" Cooper Coldson said, somewhat puzzled.

"Do you know what my father said to me in the end?" Adam Sterling did not answer Cooper Coldson’s question but continued, "He said, love, no matter how beautiful, is but a fleeting thing, and marriage is just a fool’s tragedy for two. He said, Adam Sterling, don’t marry in this life. You have my blood in you, and you’re destined to never be able to love just one person."

Adam Sterling turned around, leaning against the window, looking at Cooper Coldson, "What he said...is true, I can’t always love just one person, I can’t even love anyone."

"Adam Sterling, are you telling me all this to prove how selfish and shameless you are?" Cooper Coldson could no longer hold back. He strode forward and grabbed Adam Sterling’s collar, "You don’t love Yolanda Greenwood, yet you’re keeping her, what’s your motive?"

Adam Sterling did not resist, looked at him calmly, "You know? The three years being Yolanda Greenwood’s husband have been my most peaceful and serene times. I think this is what marriage should truly be, not gut-wrenching, not unbearable. Just a quiet companionship, letting you always know there’s someone waiting for you, always a light left for you."

He seemed a bit emotional, "Cooper Coldson, can you understand my feelings? These three years, I’d even protect with my life without hesitation."

"How can you be so selfish?" Cooper Coldson raised his fist, "You don’t love her, you just need her, it’s not fair to her!"

Adam Sterling chuckled softly, a sense of clear self-deprecation in his eyes, "Have you ever thought that she might not love me either?"

Cooper Coldson’s raised fist halted in mid-air.

Adam Sterling continued, "Does love matter so much? Cooper Coldson, you claim you love her to death, but what now? You’ve hurt her the most. Do you think such love is really indispensable?"

Cooper Coldson lowered his fist, retreating powerlessly, "I never meant to hurt her, I just... I know I did wrong, I know..."

He looked at Adam Sterling, eyes slightly reddened, "I’ll make it up to her, with all I have."

"But she doesn’t need it anymore," Adam Sterling adjusted his clothes, "Cooper Coldson, face reality. Only relationships where both need each other are the most stable and healthiest, and Yolanda needs me now."

"No!" Cooper Coldson couldn’t help but shout, "She doesn’t need you, she just... just succumbed to your fake marriage for Ella. If she knew you weren’t married, she’d definitely leave you."

"Is that so?" Adam Sterling smiled, "Alright, say you’re right, she’d leave me, then what? Do you think she’d go back to you?"

Cooper Coldson fell silent again.

Adam Sterling mercilessly exposed him, "Cooper Coldson, you should know better than I do, even if Yolanda leaves me, the one person she’s least likely to choose is you."

These words were like a bullet that pierced through all of Cooper Coldson’s defenses.

He fell helplessly into the chair, momentarily losing sensation of everything around him.

He did not know when Adam Sterling left. When Richard Reyes came in to call him, four or five hours had already passed.

"President Coldson?" The moment Richard Reyes opened the door, it felt like time had rewound, as if his president had returned to the day Yolanda Greenwood jumped into the sea. That kind of despair and helplessness made even an outsider like him feel suffocated.

Cooper Coldson still sat there, unresponsive, as if pondering over a question to which he already knew the answer.

He and Yolanda were no longer possible. Letting go was now the best choice for Yolanda Greenwood!